Comments on: Acocks Green – Warwick Road/A41 Plans – Too Late for ProntaPrint?

By: Another PP franchisee

Another PP franchisee — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:09:16 +0000

I would not want to contradict the local franchisee. Lack of parking, pedestrianisation and street “obstacles” have affected many Prontaprint and Kall Kwik franchisees over the years. Many have dealt with this by moving to industrial estates as the main business customers of the franchise often don’t visit our shop/offices anyway.
So sorry to hear about your local Prontaprinter.

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:54:42 +0000

We can see that you feel very strongly about this, and, in regard to Prontaprint as an organisation, we are not in a position to dispute what you say. However, the local franchisee regularly told us that his main problem was the guard rails. We accept he would not necessarily discuss his business problems with us, but he certainly had street furniture issues! We would be interested to hear from anyone else who has further information about Prontaprint in Acocks Green.

By: Another PP franchisee

Another PP franchisee — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:29:09 +0000

The closure of the local Prontaprint has more to do with the thieving behaviour of the Prontaprint franchise. Franchisees of Prontaprint and Kall Kwik, which are owned by On Demand Communications (an offshoot of Boundary Capital plc), are required to pay 10% of their gross turnover – often more than the profit the franchisee earns. The franchisor does virtually NOTHING for this money so it just helps to put hard working owners out of business.
If the owner of ODC, Kealan Lennon, would invest some of the 10% back into the businesses they would stand a better chance, but his business is only interested in screwing as much out of franchisees as it can.
Eventually the whole Prontaprint franchise will disappear as the present arrangement is unsustainable.